Wellington, Sept. 1, 1814.
My very dear Friend,
I FEEL thankful that a day of comparative leisure enables me to fulfil my
engagement as to writing to you. It is the Lord’s goodness; and I cannot
help considering it as one out of many thousand other instances in which
prayer and simple reliance upon God tend most effectually to forward us
in our concerns. I fear to trust my own unstable and treacherous heart,
and therefore begged of God that he would graciously assist me; and, were
I to do so constantly, how much better would it be for me! how many good
plans and well concerted schemes, instead of being rendered abortive,
would have been sped and prospered! But, trusting in the goodness of the
plan, instead of the blessing of the Lord, and, at the same time,
overlooking my own utter insufficiency, I have been manifestly left to
learn lessons of dependence, through the unwelcome medium of failure and
disappointment. But, after all the pains which a gracious God has been
pleased to take with me, how slow I am to learn, how unwilling to become
nothing, that God may become all in all. And yet this is the only way in
which we can be either extensively or permanently blessed. We are dealt
with as children; but on which of his children will a judiciously
affectionate parent bestow the greatest honour? Not on the forward and
self-sufficient. This is a spirit which he must chasten and subdue by
patient and humiliating discipline. It is the child who is modest,
distrustful, and unassuming, who is diffident of his abilities, and
afraid of leaning to his own understanding, that will meet with the
countenance and support of the wise and tender father. But to one of a
contrary temper, such a mode of treatment would be ruinous, and,
therefore, utterly inadmissible on the part of a parent whose
affectionate heart was regulated by a sound and enlightened judgment.
Ah, my dear friend, how often do we put it out of the power even of the
_tender Father of mercies_ to speed and prosper us! How much humiliating
discipline are we incessantly courting by attempting to rob God of that
glory which belongs to himself alone!
A few evenings ago I received a letter from my agent in town, giving me
an account of some loss which I had lately sustained. I took my dear
wife with me into my study, and falling on our knees, we prayed to the
Lord to bring us into a ready acquiescence with his divine will, and to
keep us from every the least feeling of dissatisfaction or expression of
complaint. While engaged in prayer, those words, “God is love,” came
with sweet power to my mind. I felt convinced that it was that divine
attribute, and that alone, which had appointed the circumstance; that I
could not have done so well without as with it; and, consequently, that I
had far more reason for gratitude and praise than for anything else.
Since that time how clearly have I seen that the _love of God_ is the
only proper key to unlock all God’s dispensations, and that when this is
used it will open to us treasures of mercies and of blessings which would
otherwise be for ever closed from our view. The LORD teach me for the
future to profit by the instruction; and enable us to label, as it were,
each passing trial with some such inscription as this, “From your loving
Father.”
You, my dear friend, have had much to bear; and perhaps Satan has
whispered at times into your mind those considerations which are likely
to distress and to discourage you; but all is well; all originates in
love; and, therefore, as Parnell so sweetly teaches, “Where you can’t
unravel,” “you should learn to trust.”
I hope you feel confidence in these blessed results of your labours.
What a word is that of our gracious Redeemer’s, and how worthy to be
graven on the palms of every minister of his truth! “Said I not unto
thee, _if_ thou wouldst _believe_ thou shouldst see the glory of God?”
Surely it is nothing but our unbelief which hinders the Lord from laying
bare his arm, and doing wondrous things in righteousness. In our parish
and neighbourhood we have lately seen a far more extensive work both of
conversion and progression than we have ever yet been indulged with; and
I cannot but ascribe it to the many prayers which have been recently
offered up in reference to this point. Many of us have felt great
confidence that the Lord would revive his work among us; and he who has
taught us daily to pray that his kingdom might come, has in no way
disappointed our hope. We trust, however, that what we have hitherto
seen are merely the drops before the shower.
Mary and King unite with me in kindest love to yourself and dear Mrs. A.,
and I remain,
Your ever sincere and truly affectionate Friend,
GEORGE MORTIMER.
* * * * *
Mr. Mortimer, from his early connexion with the Methodists, imbibed many
of their views, and followed out some of their practices. I cannot say
that he succeeded in convincing me of the expediency of the plan
described in the following letter, though possessed probably of some
advantages; nor do I think that he continued always to approve of the
same; but I think it right that he should speak for himself, and
therefore I shall give several copies or extracts of his letters on the
subject:—